Japanese Patent Publication Hei 5-324507 discloses “an online manual reference system” that stores online manual for devices. The same prior art reference also discloses a method of accessing the online manual reference system via network and referring to a corresponding online manual. That is, a unit for displaying a user an online manual stores network addresses of the devices that are connected to the network. Using a corresponding network address, the unit transmits a specified device a request for transmitting an online manual based upon user instructions. Upon receiving the above transmission request, the device responds to the requesting unit by retrieving the requested online manual from its memory storage unit.
In summary, the above online manual display technologies in Japanese Patent Publication Hei 5-324507 indicate the integrated displaying operation of online manuals for a plurality of devices that is connected to the network. In displaying the manuals, the above technologies place the online manuals in a plurality of separate multiple windows. The above prior art online manual displaying method and system require that the manuals are locally stored in the devices. To locally store the manuals, each device must own an additional storage unit such as read-only memory (ROM) or a hard disk. The additional storage unit undesirably increases the manufacturing cost of the devices or appliance.
Furthermore, the manufacturing plan may be delayed by the completion of the manuals since the manuals have to be stored in each device. In other words, although the device manufacturing process and the manual generation process take place in parallel, if the manual is not completed, the device manufacturing process is also not completed. As a result of the above dependency, the manufacturing process may be undesirably extended.
In addition, it is hard to revise the internally stored manuals. In some instances, the revisions are necessary for errors or additional information. In other instances, the revisions are necessary to update the information over time. For example, when a customer service telephone number is changed after the first shipment of the devices, it is difficult to change the telephone number that is internally stored in the device.
Lastly, it is also hard in the prior art technology to display information form a plurality of sources. In displaying a device manual, it is desirable to display information that is related to the device. For example, the related information includes recall notices and safety information that had become available after the sales. The related information is displayed in the same screen where the manual is displayed for promoting the user safety. The additional information also includes related services and products that can be displayed.
The above described difficulties remain as issues and should be improved.